Bug: Codex Desktop App Doesn’t Load, Stuck on Logo Screen

Codex
,
21

Problem description: I downloaded the Codex App for Windows , and Installed the Codex app and when I launched the Codex App , it Stuck on the Launcher Activity Screen where we see the codex logo and nothing happens, it freezes or gets struck.

OS : Windows 11 (Latest Version)

Solution (that worked for me ) : So if you have been using VS code with codex extension it creates a .codex folder under C:\Users\{Username} if not you may look under %APPDATA% . Create a Backup of .codex folder then delete this folder then Goto Settings >Apps > Installed apps > Codex > then click on Terminate and then click the Reset button once both Terminate and Reset is done then Uninstall the Codex App. Once Uninstall is completed. Restart your system and install the Codex App using the Codex Installer.exe . Once Installation is completed this time you will get the Login screen in the codex app.

Hope this solution works and resolves this issue for you guyz. If this solution works for you guyz please upvote and leave your comments. Thanks.

22

The fix for me was to…

  1. Update to the latest version.
  2. Logout via the menu bar options of the app
  3. Login again.
    OS: macOS
23

I managed to fix this problem on windows 11 using the following powershell commands:

1 - Clear user codex config

Remove-Item -Recurse -Force “$env:USERPROFILE.codex” -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

2 - Clear Windows Store app local cache

Remove-Item -Recurse -Force “$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Packages\OpenAI.Codex_2p2nqsd0c76g0\LocalCache\Local\Codex” -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

24

can confirm it works just tried it now

25

For me on vscode it sometimes freezes again. Then i just leave the thread and go back in again and it comes up again.. 1/5 times that already works so just keep trying - restart vscode also… and taking a little break helps too.. because you can’t do anything anyways. I think it is an API issue - probably scaling … beside that GPT 5.5 works like a charme.. good work!!!

27

I found that the issue may be caused by the auth.json file located in the ~/.codex folder.
Solution: Quit the application, delete the auth.json file, and then restart the application. You should be able to log in again.
This solution works on both Windows and Mac. This method also prevents the loss of past conversations and project records

28

Thanks for sharing! It works!

But basically, it will delete all local chat history in my VS code with Codex. People should be careful to work with it.

29

What worked for me was updating the Codex CLI from my terminal:

npm i -g @openai/codex@latest

Then I ran:

codex logout
codex login

After that, the Codex app launched normally right away.

30

Thanks, your instructions worked on a fresh install!

31

That is a real solution.

  1. Go to Google and search: Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable

  2. Open the official Microsoft page

  3. Click on "Latest supported Redistributable versionDownload:

    • vc_redist.x64.exe (important)

  4. Run both installers as Administrator

  5. Restart your PC

32

On mac now Version 26.429.30905 (2345) seems to finally fixed

33

The same. I used gpt 5.5 xhigh in codex cli to solve this problem)))
If you want to fix this issue on Windows, please refer to my bug report below:

Title:
VS Code Codex extension webview stuck after auto-update: module import/export mismatch

Environment:

  • OS: Windows 11
  • IDE: VS Code
  • Extension ID: openai.chatgpt
  • Working rollback version: openai.chatgpt@26.5506.31004
  • Date observed: 2026-05-14
  • Screenshot attached: “Step, where Codex crashes.png”

Description:
After VS Code auto-updated the OpenAI/Codex extension, the Codex sidebar stopped rendering the start screen. The extension icon
appears, but the webview does not continue loading into the normal Codex UI.

Expected:
Codex sidebar should render the start screen / chat UI.

Actual:
Only the Codex icon/loading area is visible. The UI never finishes rendering.

Console error observed in the VS Code webview:
SyntaxError: The requested module ‘./external-agent-import-step-C96Jtdue.js’ does not provide an export named ‘t’
Imported by:
./gpu-tearing-debug-settings-Kq9K4yvT.js

Workaround:
Downgrading the extension to openai.chatgpt@26.5506.31004 and pinning it restores the UI.

Notes:
This looks like a packaged webview bundle regression: one generated JS chunk imports an export that the referenced chunk does not
provide.

Step, where Codex crashes
Step, where Codex crashes593×912 2.86 KB

34

I’m having the same problem after upgrading Visual Studio Code on Linux.

It is a bit elusive to troubleshoot, in that neither the DevTools in VSCode nor any logs show any particular error that would seem explain this.

Also, not sure if this also happens to you, when it works it still fails to load recent chats anyway, nor recognise the workspace agent defined in .codex/config.toml. Anyway I have tried also other workspaces which have no customisation at all, so it’s not related to a specific local configuration.

Currently I have 26.707.41301 on VSCode 1.128.0.

I have tried the following:

  1. Disable/Enable the extension
  2. Uninstall/Reinstall the extension
  3. Switch to pre-release version
  4. Install a specific version (all the way down to 26.623.141536)
  5. Tried to also delete ~/.config/Code/ as well as ~/.vscode-shared/sharedStorage/state.vscdb to exclude potential issues with my VSCode configuration
  6. Redid all the above while also deleting ~/.codex/ at every step to force a clean session every time

This is what I see after step 5 + 6, fresh install, still loading:

Screenshot From 2026-07-13 09-24-27
Screenshot From 2026-07-13 09-24-272362×1606 217 KB

Logs for Codex:

2026-07-13 09:26:10.423 [info] Activating Codex extension
2026-07-13 09:26:10.423 [info] [CodexMcpConnection] Spawning codex app-server
2026-07-13 09:26:10.423 [info] [IpcRouter] I am the router
2026-07-13 09:26:10.423 [warning] [IpcClient] Received broadcast but no handler is configured method=client-status-changed
2026-07-13 09:26:13.357 [info] [CodexMcpConnection] Initialize received id=1
2026-07-13 09:26:13.457 [warning] [CodexMcpConnection] cli: message="codex_core_plugins::manager: failed to warm featured plugin ids cache error=remote featured plugin request to https://chatgpt.com/backend-api/plugins/featured failed with status 401 Unauthorized: {\"detail\":\"Unauthorized\"}"
2026-07-13 09:26:17.540 [info] [IpcRouter] I am the router
2026-07-13 09:26:17.542 [info] [IpcRouter] I am the router
2026-07-13 09:26:17.544 [warning] [IpcClient] Received broadcast but no handler is configured method=client-status-changed
2026-07-13 09:26:17.738 [warning] [CodexMcpConnection] cli: message="codex_core_plugins::manifest: ignoring interface.defaultPrompt[0]: prompt must be at most 128 characters path=file:///home/kitty/.codex/.tmp/plugins/plugins/ngs-analysis/.codex-plugin/plugin.json"
2026-07-13 09:26:17.740 [warning] [CodexMcpConnection] cli: message="codex_core_plugins::manifest: ignoring interface.defaultPrompt[0]: prompt must be at most 128 characters path=file:///home/kitty/.codex/.tmp/plugins/plugins/ngs-analysis/.codex-plugin/plugin.json"

In the Window logs I see something slightly odd, but based on what I have researched online it looks like this is a known problem in VSCode, so I believe this should not be related:

2026-07-13 09:26:08.546 [info] [Window] Started local extension host with pid 1638315.
2026-07-13 09:26:09.123 [info] [Window] [AccountPolicyGate] apply: state=inactive, reason=undefined, isRestricted=false
2026-07-13 09:26:09.385 [error] [Window] Ignoring python.analysis.indexing.followSymlinkedFolders as python.analysis.indexing is true
2026-07-13 09:26:09.492 [error] [Window] Ignoring python.analysis.indexing.followSymlinkedFolders as python.analysis.indexing is true
2026-07-13 09:26:10.126 [info] [Window] Settings Sync: Account status changed from uninitialized to unavailable
2026-07-13 09:26:10.797 [info] [Cloud Changes] Prompting to enable cloud changes, has application previously launched from Continue On flow: false
2026-07-13 09:26:12.137 [info] [Window] [perf] Render performance baseline is 25ms
2026-07-13 09:26:14.124 [info] [Window] [AccountPolicyGate] apply: state=inactive, reason=undefined, isRestricted=false
2026-07-13 09:26:18.849 [error] [Window] potential listener LEAK detected, popular: Error
    at a.create (vscode-file://vscode-app/usr/share/code/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/workbench.desktop.main.js:431:18435)
    at kxe._event (vscode-file://vscode-app/usr/share/code/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/workbench.desktop.main.js:433:2009)
    at new Ge (vscode-file://vscode-app/usr/share/code/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/workbench.desktop.main.js:433:31379)
    at jle.doReadFileStream (vscode-file://vscode-app/usr/share/code/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/workbench.desktop.main.js:5134:91433)
    at jle.readFileStream (vscode-file://vscode-app/usr/share/code/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/workbench.desktop.main.js:5134:91369)
    at async MQo (vscode-file://vscode-app/usr/share/code/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/workbench.desktop.main.js:5499:12707)
    at async W8e.loadResource (vscode-file://vscode-app/usr/share/code/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/workbench.desktop.main.js:5499:27945)
2026-07-13 09:26:18.867 [error] [Window] potential listener LEAK detected, dominated: Error
    at a.create (vscode-file://vscode-app/usr/share/code/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/workbench.desktop.main.js:431:18435)
    at kxe._event (vscode-file://vscode-app/usr/share/code/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/workbench.desktop.main.js:433:2009)
    at new Ge (vscode-file://vscode-app/usr/share/code/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/workbench.desktop.main.js:433:31379)
    at jle.doReadFileStream (vscode-file://vscode-app/usr/share/code/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/workbench.desktop.main.js:5134:91433)
    at jle.readFileStream (vscode-file://vscode-app/usr/share/code/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/workbench.desktop.main.js:5134:91369)
    at async MQo (vscode-file://vscode-app/usr/share/code/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/workbench.desktop.main.js:5499:12707)
    at async W8e.loadResource (vscode-file://vscode-app/usr/share/code/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/workbench.desktop.main.js:5499:27945)

No issues with the CLI by the way, that works well all the time.

35

@asalv

Welcome to the forum!

First, I am not an OpenAI employee. I have access only to publicly available information, so I can offer suggestions but not an authoritative diagnosis.

In reviewing the details with ChatGPT, it identified this as the more significant log entry:

failed to warm featured plugin ids cache
...
plugins/featured failed with status 401 Unauthorized

ChatGPT also found this closed Codex issue:

That report contains nearly identical log entries, including:

  • the Codex panel failing to load;
  • the request to plugins/featured returning 401 Unauthorized; and
  • the warning that the ngs-analysis plugin’s default prompt exceeds 128 characters.

Because this comparison and interpretation were generated with the assistance of ChatGPT, they should be treated as leads to investigate rather than as a confirmed diagnosis.

Since your CLI is working, you could also run:

/feedback

The Codex documentation describes /feedback as a way to send logs to the Codex maintainers. Include a link to this forum post or to any GitHub issue you create, along with the date, time, timezone, Linux distribution, VS Code version, extension version, and the matching log entries.

A separate forum topic may make the problem easier for other users to find, but the Codex GitHub issue tracker and /feedback are more likely to put the diagnostic information in front of people who can investigate the extension.

Also consider opening a new Codex issue with the details you provided and referencing issue #28280 as a closely related report.

HTH

36

I just have to restart vscode a couple times and eventually it comes back.. you get used to it :rofl:

37

Hi @EricGT thanks for looking into this.

I have tried to troubleshoot this further with the help of the CLI and I have found two workarounds that sometimes help:

  1. Run under x11 instead of wayland: code --ozone-platform=x11
  2. Keep using wayland but disable Vulkan: code --ozone-platform=wayland --disable-features=Vulkan

In both cases I get to at least login and use the chat - which is by the way the reason why you saw the 401 - and the only warning that keeps appearing all the time is this:

2026-07-20 12:21:13.616 [warning] [IpcClient] Received broadcast but no handler is configured method=thread-stream-state-changed

What still does not work for me, is the following: if I want to review the diffs for any file that was edited by Codex, and I hover the mouse onto the file, I do see those diffs, but if I actually click on the file then the window that pops up is stuck on showing the logo. A very odd leftover issue, but minor to me.

I was able to resolve the issue about ngs-analysis by simply removing the .tmp folder, but this works for me just because I don’t need plugins for what I’m working on.